


A Tree Without Roots

by shakes18



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-23 14:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8331529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shakes18/pseuds/shakes18
Summary: Lily Aldrin has been running from her past for a long time, but no one can run forever





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I clearly don’t own anything related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or How I Met Your Mother. If I did, I’d be writing canon rather than messing with it.
> 
> Buffy: Cannon through Chosen
> 
> How I Met Your Mother will be canon apart from the things that are changed in the story. If an episode or story arc is skipped, feel free to assume that it happened the same as in the show and I just have nothing to add or twist to it.
> 
>  
> 
> "A people without knowledge of their past is like a tree without roots" - Marcus Garvey

Willow stumbled out of Robin’s office to get on the bus out of town. Her part of this fight was over, and she was exhausted. Weaving as she walked, she turned every way she could, eager to escape danger in her defenseless state. The clamour of battle raged around her as she leaned against the wall, resting for a minute before taking her final steps outside into the protective sunlight. 

This was a mistake.

With a violent shove she found herself being pushed forward onto the ground. Willow’s sight came back into sharp relief, adrenaline surging through her, fueling her movements. She rolled forward, coming up into a crouch. Taking a moment to privately congratulate herself on executing a Buffy-esque move, she spun quickly up on her heels, bringing the backup stake she kept in her waistband up in front of her. She stopped short, taking in the view before her. Where a moment ago there had been a clean (for a high school in the middle of an ultimate battle between good and evil that is) hallway, there was now walls painted with the red blood of someone. Two Turok-Han were prowling back and forth, trying to circle a smaller, female figure with a stake in one hand, and her other clutching her neck, blood running between her fingers.

“Go Willow!” came the sharp voice, though some of it’s harshness was lost in the speaking, as if every moment was taking more and more strength from it.

Willow gasped sharply, her body forcing her to quickly gather the air she needed to reply before it was too late. 

“Kennedy! Are you ok? What happened?” Willow stepped forward to reach out to her, but at that moment, the Turok-Han attacked. Kennedy with a swift leg sweep brought down the first, and drove the stake into it’s heart quickly, but her injuries, the full extent of which Willow couldn’t tell, slowed her down enough that the second vamp got a chance it never would have any other day. With blinding speed and the violence borne of a creature who likes nothing better than bloodshed, the monster drove it’s clawed hand straight through Kennedy’s back. 

A blast of magic reverberated through the hall, as Willow blasted the second creature into dust, but at this moment the exhaustion caught up with her, and before she could use this sudden second wind, she collapsed next to Kennedy. Teetering on the brink of consciousness, she could barely hear her lover’s whisper. 

“Will, please get up. Please get out of here. I had to come back for you, and I’m glad I did. I’ve known for a while that I wouldn’t survive this, but you have to.” With a great deal of effort, Kennedy reached out her arm, and shoved Willow awake, breathing her last.

Barely able to see through the haze and blood and tears, Willow looked into the now blank face of this young woman with whom she had shared so much. Kennedy was the reason she was able to do magic again. Kennedy was her rock, her support. Her assertiveness had pushed Willow into living her life again after Tara’s death, and though the relationship was new, Willow had again lost someone she loved, someone she should have been able to save.

Barely able to breathe past the unreleased sobs in her throat, Willow crawled out into the sunlight. Finally out of danger of the battle, she let herself go, her screams of emotional pain mixing with the chanting she was performing almost unconsciously. With a flash of light, Willow disappeared, not even able to hear the small thunderclap created when the air rushed to fill the void she left.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow awoke with a start, but sitting up was the wrong choice. Halfway into the air, she let out a tremulous groan and flopped back down into the bed. Keeping her eyes closed she began to review what she knew. It had been nearly a week since she had magically transported herself out of Sunnydale and into the New York suburban home of her grandparents. Unsure where to go at the time, her chants had simply asked to get as far away from that place of pain as she could, and as best she could figure, her subconscious had directed her to a place she knew well. Her grandparents had of course taken her in and given her a room. Her parents may have been distant her whole life, but there was still love there, and her grandparents had certainly never been withdrawn.

Of course, the downside of their concern for her meant she could hear whispers late at night, wondering what could have happened to her. She knew they planned to ask where she had come from, and what had put her in such a state, but she had worked out a plan. 

Willow wasn’t the best liar, but after spending so much time with the Scoobies, she had picked up a few things. Besides, given a week to plan, with no physical capability to do anything but lie in bed and think, she was able to come up with something that was fairly airtight. 

It should have been easier though. Willow had realized after her first night there that a combination of activating the slayers, killing those Uber-vamps and the transporting herself across the country had left her drained of any ability to use magic. It was slowing her healing as well, the bruises and injuries from the battle only just now starting to feel better.

She had kept an ear open for her grandparents as she sat up again, but more slowly this time, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she could. She forced herself downstairs and decided that a good offence would be her best defence. 

“Grandma, Grandpa?” she called into the kitchen.

“Willow dear, what are you doing out of bed?” her grandmother admonished

“I’m feeling better today. Listen can we go into the kitchen and talk? I have some things to tell you.” Willow took a few steps towards the door before allowing her Grandmother to take her arm and lead her the rest of the way.

“What’s on your mind?” her grandfather joined them in the room, taking Willow’s other arm and helping her into a seat.

“I just wanted to thank you for taking such good care of me, and give you some explanation for why I’m here.” Willow sank into a chair and absentmindedly grabbed a small roll, toying with it while trying to seem as if she was having trouble starting.

Finally she broke the silence, and then told her grandparents the best story she could, mixing fact with fiction, and being unafraid to make herself look culpable as well as her inventions.

The story she told them was one of half truths. She spoke of a relationship that sent her into a bad place during college, one of addiction and an inability to control herself. After getting help, she returned to college only to find a new relationship, one who she relied on too heavily in getting over that addiction. This fake boyfriend, whom Willow named Caleb (because why not give others a reason to hate that name as well) took advantage of Willow’s dependance.

As she got to this part of the story, Willow put some effort into remaining vague, as if she were unable to talk too much about the difficulties he put her through. Finally, after a huge fight, she told her grandparents, she left him only for him to chase her, and force more drugs into her system. Angry at his betrayal and afraid or becoming addicted again, she ran as far as she could from home, and to a place she remembered only with fond memories. She escaped him there, but exhausted and feeling the effects of a new withdrawal, she was able to do nothing but rest the past few days.

They oohed and ahhed in the right places, and put comforting hands on her shoulders, and Willow felt guilty about deceiving them, but she needed them to believe this danger if the next part of her plan was to work. 

The next few days, Willow spoke with her parents for the first time in years, They had moved away from Sunnydale, and what had started as a test to see if they would contact her first, turned into a long silence, only now broken because she needed to inform them of the next part of her plan.

Willow Rosenberg was no more. Instead, legally, Willow changed her name in order to escape her past, even if it was a different one than her family believed, she still needed to run. Determined to get her life back to normal, or at least to what it might have been had she grown up anywhere but on a Hellmouth, Willow enrolled in college at Wesleyan with new black hair, a new attitude and a new name. She left her grandparents house as Willow Rosenberg for the last time, and arrived in Connecticut as Lily Aldrin.


	2. Pilot

Lily exhaled heavily. She knew that Ted could come home any moment, and that there was food half cooked on the stove. She even knew that the kitchen floor was probably not the most hygienic place to lay naked, but Marshall was with her, and she needed the extra second to process everything that had happened in the last few minutes.

She was engaged.

It was a good feeling, joyous even. She knew that she loved Marshall, and that she was incredibly happy with him. Their relationship, more than anything else, was proof positive to her that she had made the right choice in starting her life over. Marshall was sweet, and goofy, and he loved her.

And I love him back, Lily thought with a smile.

Pulling on their clothes, Marshall finally decided to try and open the Champagne, and Lily knew she needed to turn of the stove before the apartment began to fill with the acrid smell of burning. Quickly twisting the knob, she turned back to look again at her boyfriend. No, fiancee, she’d have to get used to that. She turned back to look at her fiancee just in time for a blinding and blaring pain to shoot through her eye.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Damn Marshall and this stupid eyepatch, how was she to know that he was next to her if she couldn’t see out of that side at all. Turning back to her magazine, Lily thought offhandedly, I wonder how Xander dealt with this all the time.

The sudden shock of thinking about Xander (specifically Xander and not her former life in an abstract sense) for the first time in years was given no room to breathe or process as Ted burst into the room with a story about a girl. Lily pushed the thought aside and refocused on Ted and his encounter, but stuck there niggling in the back of her mind, was the reawakening of something that she would have rather left buried.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It had been a couple weeks, and Lily had managed to distract herself every time and of the Scoobies popped into her head. It wasn’t too difficult to stop thinking about them, she’d had years of practice trying to forget about her past, but it didn’t matter how often she pushed them from her mind, they kept popping back up every time she least expected it. 

Well, she decided they came out of nowhere, if she had been allowing herself to truly dwell on their appearance in her mind, she’d have recognized that there was always something reminding her of their presence. The eyepatch was obvious, though she tried not to think of it, but there were other things. Robin had joined their group of friends, and she was still trying not to picture a school principal every time she was mentioned. Ted’s obsession and collection of medieval weapons from the Renaissance Fair was one thing that always brought them into her head, but it wasn’t always so obvious a connection. Visits to the museum, flowers in the street, Broadway, there was always something reminding her of those friends she left behind. Dwelling on why she was being reminded would be tantamount to returning to the past, so Lily avoided and distracted and told herself that if she thought too much about them it would destroy the good that had come out of leaving them behind.

One of those good things was hopefully going to be that night. Robin had invited them to go out dancing, but Lily wanted to do more mature things. She was an adult now, and far removed from the hedonistic need to dance around hoping to get laid, after all she had Marshall for that. Besides, clubs reminded her too much of the Bron… It didn’t matter, she reminded herself, she and Marshall had already planned this gathering weeks ago with some of her teacher friends.

Of course, as the night wore on, and the people in Marshalls apartment became a pointless buzz of noise rather than interesting conversation. She could tell Marshall was frustrated to be here instead of out with their friends, and that the pain in his mouth was just making it worse, but she appreciated that he was sticking it out. It may not have been the most fun night she’d ever had, but it was the exact reason she had started over, to experience a normal life. A life where there didn’t need to be some new excitement every 40 minutes. 

Marshall didn’t have that same need or desire, and when she saw him go to the bathroom, she felt a bit strange. They had talked once about how to secretly escape from that apartment.

_“There is no way anyone would be able to sneak out of this apartment for any reason. It’s why Barney stopped using this place to hook up with girls, you know that.” Marshall had that infuriating, but also kind of sexy look on his face when he knew he was right._

_“I never said it was easy to get out, but if I can’t use the fire escape, or the door, I could go out the window in the bathroom.” Lily was just waiting for him to take the bait. It wasn’t often that she let herself get caught up in these hypothetical arguments, but when she did, she prided herself on being able to come up with the unexpected answer. Besides this argument was one she knew she could win. She avoided the memories, but the truth was her brain had been trained to find as many exit strategies as possible from a situation, and that sort of instinct was hard to shut off, even if the associated experience was forgotten._

_“Lil, that window is three stories up, dropping into a fully concrete back alley.”_

_“All you’d have to do is hang out the window from your fingers, swing yourself to the left and land on top of the dumpster back there. The plastic lid would break your fall, mostly, and the height of the dumpster, and hanging down, would remove a large amount of the falling distance. You could probably do it without being hurt in any way. And that fails to take into account that when the DeAngeles’ have their laundry line out, you could grab on to that to make the fall even easier to deal with._

When that memory came back she somehow knew. Marshall was young, dumb, and overly confident in his athletic ability. He’d been talking for years about jumping from their roof to the one across the alley, there was every possibility that he’d try to get out that window.

Lily excused herself from their guests, and burst into the bathroom to help Marshall’s dumb ass back through the window, but instead found herself in one of those rare occasions where she regretted being right. She peered out of the window just in time to see Marshall walking out of the alley, the clothesline snapped and fluttering in the breeze where Marshall's weight broke it from it’s anchor in the wall. 

But Lily’s fury turned cold and morphed into fear as she stood at the window for another moment. Following Marshall out of the alley, she saw something she hadn’t seen in years, something that she forgot except in her nightmares. The ridges on it’s head disappearing as it stepped out into the alley, the vampire turned after Marshall, and followed out of sight.

Acting instinctively to protect the man she loved, Lily jumped out of the window without thinking, without grabbing on, or hanging down. She just jumped, and didn’t even think twice when she landed gently on her feet three stories down. Taking off in the direction of the vampire, her neck went cold and hot at the same time, and the hair on her head felt every slight gust of wind as she sprinted down the street. The vampire wasn’t far ahead of her now, nor was it far behind Marshall. 

Marshall turned down an alley to cut across to one of the busier streets in the hopes of hailing a cab, and the vampire tensed, picking up his pace as he went down the same alley. Lily put on a burst of speed, entering seconds after the vampire, but still feeling like she was miles behind. She heard the slight growl echo that signified the vamp had put it’s game face on, and Marshall was only feet ahead when Lily grabbed the creature by the shoulder and spun it around. 

Marshall exited the alley as Lily jumped back, away from the fangs and claws of the monster in front of her. Simultaneously relieved that Marshall had gotten away, and newly concerned that the thing was now looking at her with a smile.

“Well, look at that. Just as I was getting peckish, a meal decides to walk up and offer itself to me, rather than making me chase it down. Goodness I do love delivery.” 

It had been years since Lily had looked point blank into the face of a vampire, and in that time, she’d certainly lost some of her stomach for it. Before, she was so used to it that she could almost laugh at the grotesqueries. She had at times even been more worried about the quality of puns she made while facing these creatures. But now, that time and distance that had given her so much peace of mind showed it’s downside in reawakening her fear of the dark. 

Smiling, with a low rumbling growl that was almost a purr, the vampire stepped towards her, grabbing her arms faster than she could blink, and pulling her into his embrace. Lily struggled, hoping to get away. Unable to break free, a haze began to form over her vision as the vampire leaned slowly towards her neck, sniffing deeply as if enjoying the aroma of her fear. Then suddenly, as Lily braced, the vampire stopped and dissolved around her.

Turning in anger, she raised her hands unconsciously towards the mysterious figure approaching, only to finally have her vision clear and see a young woman, possibly late teens, sashaying towards her, a slight smirk on her face that faltered as she met Lily’s eyes. The girl searched in Lily’s face again, but apparently didn’t see whatever had caused her to hesitate the first time.

“First one I’ve seen in weeks, lucky I was here.” the girl said in an undertone that Lily just managed to hear and shook her head disapprovingly, the light in the alley glinting off of her bald head.

Lily took a closer look at the girl. She was tall, very tall, but incredibly skinny. Dark skinned and beautiful. She walked with an easy elegance, her legs stretching forever into each step she took, while her torso seemed to just flow from one step to the other. Clutched in the long fingers of her left hand was a sharp wooden stake, that the slayer (for this girl was undoubtedly a slayer) tucked into her waistband hurriedly when she noticed Lily seeing it. 

“You ok miss?, I think I scared him off when I shouted at him.” The girl walked forward cautiously, trying to compose a face of concern and surprise. Lily saw right through it. This girl needed a little practice at deflecting curious survivors. 

“Thank you,” Lily managed to force out, her breathing still heavy, and she turned and walked away, in the same direction Marshall went.

“Did you save her?” the tall slayer heard in her ear.

“Yea, but she seemed shaken up still, she rushed, didn’t even ask me any questions.” 

“Well that was lucky.”

“Yeah. I have to admit though, I was hoping for a little more of a fight. It was the first vamp I’ve seen in almost two weeks. I don’t like that they’re laying so low.”

“Well what do you expect,” the watcher in her ear replied, “This is New York. Vamps were never a big presence here in the first place, too many eyes, too many lights. And now that there is a slayer stationed here permanently, they have even less of a reason to show themselves.”

The tall slayer turned and walked away, not bothering to respond. 

Around the corner, Lily sank to the ground. It was one thing to see a vampire, and another for it to be killed. But in addition to that, to be confronted that close with a slayer. With a slayer that wouldn’t have existed without her actions. To be reminded of her past that forcefully, that quickly was breaking her down, and as Lily sank down into the street and let her breathing come to a close, she decided that going to the club with Marshall might not be a bad idea. Anything to drown out the thoughts and memories.


	3. Best Prom Ever

Two months. 

The wedding wasn’t supposed to happen for a while and now it was all happening in two months and she needed to get everything ready. There was no photographer, no caterer, invitations had to be sent out, and there was the band.

The 88 were supposed to be great, sure, but she hadn’t even heard them play, and she couldn’t just agree to a band without hearing them play. So with the help of Robin and Barney she was going to sneak into a prom and hear them play. It seemed simple enough, but talking about sneaking into a prom was funny, even the act of finding a way in was fun, being inside however, that was quickly becoming torturous. Seeing these kids dancing and laughing, with their future ahead of them, in this particular setting. It brought up old feelings. So when Robin got puked on, she was silently relieved to get out of the dance and into the bathroom.

Relieved that is, until Robin asked about her prom. Lily flushed. She had long been used to living beyond her lies. Those conversations about her life before meeting them had happened long before with Marshall and Ted. She was past the need to lie to them, her lies had been accepted as a factual history, and though she had few regrets for the necessity of them to maintain her distance from her true past, she didn’t enjoy lying to those she cared about. That was the danger of new friends. Still, there was little she could do to avoid it. The questioned was answered with a fabrication she had told before. The fact that she had told the story before made it easier for her mind to wander while she spoke, and in that wandering, she for once allowed herself to think on the truth behind the stories she told.

She told Robin all about her time in high school, with the geeky boyfriend who adored her, and about her prom when she broke up with her boyfriend to find herself. It was funny actually, that her made up past was so similar to the future she used to imagine herself when she was a child. Of course the geeky boyfriend should have been Xander, and the breakup at prom was actually pulled from Buffy. Still, remembering her prom should have been nice, hellhounds and all, but as she told the story, frustration set in. She complained to Robin about how she had never found herself, but really she was frustrated about how much of herself she had lost. 

Her lies had taken over her life, and even though that had been the plan, Lily began to worry that her past was just a dream. In her old life, she had been a lesbian, but just a few months ago she was worried about being pregnant. She was here tonight to listen to a band for her wedding to a man. In her old life, she had sworn off lying to those she loved, now circumstances had forced her to sneak around and continue lying to those she cared about. 

And it didn’t even matter, she had left that life so she could be normal. So she could avoid the supernatural and the dangerous. But not long ago she had saved Marshall from a vampire, and met a slayer. She was even afraid that her magic was coming back.

_Lily was grateful to Robin for inviting her to the awards show. She had felt like a movie star, and it was a great distraction from the difficulties of her life recently. She stamped down the memory of that vampire before it got too far. She didn’t want to think about how she had made that jump, or why the slayer had hesitated when speaking to her. She didn’t want to be afraid that she had been recognized or worse._

_She had just managed to shut out that fear when Robin showed up with her date, and Lily swallowed hard. She trembled when she shook his hand, but Sandy just said something about how it was nice to meet a fan who was shaking with excitement to meet him._

_She knew it couldn’t be him, not only was Sandy nothing like him on the surface, there was nothing in him that gave any flicker of recognition to seeing her there. Besides, while it had been a while, Wesley was not one to give up the fight, especially not to read the newspaper on television, where many of the enemies she knew he had would have found him easily._

_Still they looked exactly the same. Willow might have been more freaked out if she hadn’t already experienced this situation before. She had seen a few doppelgangers before, the most jarring and scary one was in college with Daryl, who could have been the long lost twin brother of Oz. But while Oz wouldn’t have been able to act like he didn’t know her, Wesley had gained the ability to play things close to the chest in the years he was in LA., and regardless of her intellectual surety that it wasn’t him, Lily still could feel her heart beating very quickly._

_It got worse when she heard Marshall in her head. They had joked before about being able to talk telepathically, being so close that they could communicate with simply glances, but this time was different. She could hear him speaking in her head, and before she could stop herself, she replied. Later that night, she played it off as if she couldn’t hear him, and Marshall had convinced himself that he was just interpreting her glances in her voice, but she was troubled. Besides the possible use the night Marshall was being followed by a vampire, she hadn’t used any magic since the day she “went” to her grandparents._

If all it took was stress to bring her magic back out, then she was terrified that this wedding would bring hell down on her new life. Robin may have reminded her that she was marrying someone worth it, but she hadn’t been lying when she said that her doubts were in herself. Her past was becoming harder to hide from (especially if Robin was going to kiss her ever again. Man, was that a stark reminder that she missed the feel of lady lips.) 

Lily relaxed, and felt better when she danced with Marshall, but it was still there. As she supposed it always would be. Her past just waiting to come back and destroy everything she loved. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

“What the hell is going on here?” The tall dark slayer yelled as her watcher burst into her room.

“We can’t stay, we have to leave” The watcher was gathering everything he could, stuffing it into bags as he went.

“What? We just got here. Come on Dylan, we hunt for this nest for months, then when we get here you’re trying to rush us out? The vamps are all dusted, I took care of them.” The slayer folded her arms and looked coolly at the man who was trying to rush her away from something she had fought hard to find.

“You don’t understand Amalia, The vamps were just the guards, the master is coming back. I saw him outside, and we need to get out the back before he comes in here to our arms.” Dylan the watcher pulled his slayer forcefully by the arm. Amalia yanked her arm from his grasp, but reluctantly followed on her own, remembering that she was given NYC because it was low risk, and that she was trying to get experience, not fight something she didn’t know about.

With one final glance and a sigh, she pulled herself out of the back window with ease, and ran into the night, their investigation ruined by some damn creepy crawly who just had to pick tonight to stay in and relax rather than go out hunting. 

It didn’t matter, time was on their side, sooner or later, they would figure out why the vampires were stepping up their game to even more than pre-awakening levels, and just who it was that was controlling them.


	4. Come On

Lily was walking quickly, running through the options in her head. She had been on her way down to the bar when she saw the vampire. She didn’t know the girl, and didn’t know the vamp, but no matter how far removed from her past she was, she couldn’t just stand by and ignore someone being eaten. 

She also didn’t know what she was going to do. The vampire was following the girl, and while so far she had managed to stay in the public view, it was just a matter of time until the monster cornered her in some out of the way corner. Lily was willing the girl to stick to the public streets, but as she knew would happen eventually, the young woman turned down a deserted street, followed by the vamp. Lily rushed forward, but turned the corner just in time to see the slayer she had met earlier that year stake it from behind. 

She ducked back around the corner, out of sight and walked quickly back to the bar, hoping the slayer hadn’t seen her. It was happening just the way she had always hoped it wouldn’t. She chose New York because even when she was in high school, it had never had much of a vampire problem. It had been explained to her once that vampires needed to stay hidden. Not just because of the sunlight problem, but also because they were still a statistically insignificant portion of the population. If enough people found out about them, they’d be hard pressed to survive as easily as they did currently. Manhunts and military action could put them in danger, despite their superior biology and relative immortality. 

But now, even in New York, the vampires were becoming common enough that she felt compelled to take some action. Lily was afraid. Her past was coming back to haunt her, and it was just going to be a matter of time before she was found out. The stress of this was mixing with the already incredibly difficulty she was having dealing with the thoughts of getting married. 

Under the surface, feelings and images swirled. Pictures of Ted or Barney, or even Robin now, hurt and bloody on the ground. It was when the picture of Marshall, ridges on his forehead and fangs in his mouth came unbidden to her mind that she lost it. She had to find a way out of this.

Weeks ago, when a co-worker had given her information about an art fellowship, she had been excited by the idea, and applied without looking too deeply into it. When after the application, she had found out it conflicted with the wedding, she was disappointed, but accepting. Besides, even if her wedding was not a conflict, the fellowship was in San Francisco, and she was pretty sure she never wanted to head back to California, even to a place that far from Sunnyda… from where she grew up.

But now; now that things were piling up so much, she was starting to think about it. There had been an open interview process that she hadn’t planned on attending, but now, she needed to go and get away from all of this. Ted would forgive her, she decided, if he knew the truth. That had to be good enough. Wrapped up in her own issues, she decided not to worry too much about him, and to focus on getting to New Haven. The fellowship would give the gang a reason to blame for her running away.

Hours later, relief swept through her. She may have been accepted to the program, but she wasn’t planning to go. She loved Marshall too much to do that to him because of a single scare. The slayer hadn’t even seen her, and it was only two vampires in the past year. Both were dead now, and the slayer was clearly capable. Her worrying had been for nothing. 

Still it was nice to know she had the option to escape.   
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

 

Lily walked out of the door slowly, despite the urgency of the situation. The deliberateness of her stride somehow deepening the sense of sudden departure, rather than prolonging the goodbye. Even packing hadn’t felt like a rush, the finality of the thing demanding she took her time, but yet somehow it still felt like from the beginning of the fight until the moment of her leaving had lasted a second. She walked in an attempt to be calm, but everything inside her felt like it was boiling over rather than settling down. The urge to run, to jump, to do something was heavy inside of her, and only strengthened as she recalled how she got here.

“Uh, Robin, I-I gotta go. Just knock, okay?” Lily’s eyes were wide and fearful as she looked at Marshall processing the information that he just learned.

“Summer Fellowship?” Marshall still had half a smile on his face, as if wondering if the message had been some kind of joke. 

Lily hadn’t planned to go, she truly hadn’t, she just liked the security of the possibility of going. She liked that she could do something as innocent as paint, and be accepted for it, she liked knowing that as the wedding approached, she had other options for when something turned it all to shit. 

And she had expected it to go down, nothing in her life had ever gone well, no relationship she had ever been a part of had ended positively, and now that she was here with Marshall, she knew it was going to go down that road too, She just hadn’t thought she would be the thing that put them there.

She had spent days talking around the issue. Her arguments with Marshall starting and stopping, over and over. They had intended the pause function to be a stress relief. Allow the fight to stop before it got too heated, do something nice together, resume the fight and realize it wasn’t as big a deal a couple hours later. This was different. The constant ups and downs of a fight that would never truly fade away until a decision had been made. Arguing, then eating, then fighting, then having sex, then back at each others throats with no break in between. No time to figure herself out. No time to understand what she was trying to get from this argument. 

“Unpause?” Marshall sat up, but didn’t stand yet. Sitting naked on the edge of the bed, unwilling to stand up yet, as if getting dressed would bring the emotions back, as if staying on the bed would keep them away, the blankets a barrier to the conclusion of this argument they both could feel was coming. 

“Unpause.” Lily barely even whispered the word. Drawing in on herself, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable torrent of anger and frustration that she couldn’t deflect anymore. But it didn’t come, instead, the blow was much lighter, and much worse.

“I know you love me Lily, but ‘I was never going to go’ has become ‘I have to do this’. How can I trust that even if you do promise me that you’ll come back, that isn’t just a lie. You lied to me for weeks about this fellowship, and I couldn’t bear the thought of you telling me you’ll come back, and that just being another lie.” Marshall stood up and pulled on his clothes, keeping his back to Lily and his head bent, as if turning from her would protect him from whatever response she gave.

But Lily didn’t have a response. There is was again. Trust. Her fighting wasn’t about wanting to go to the fellowship, or about wanting to do more with her life, or even about escaping the wedding. She’d been fighting for Marshall’s trust, and somehow over the course of this fight, her mistakes had been laid bare. She was no longer fighting to keep his trust in her, but instead to prove that it was wrong.

Why should he trust her, she had lied to him not for weeks, but for years. Not about this one thing, but about everything. Marshall was one of the most genuinely wonderful people she’d ever had the luck to be with. He was as sweet and caring as Tara, as self confident as Kennedy, and as understanding of her needs as Oz. She felt she could be herself with him, and most of the time she was, but there was always something she was holding back, and Marshall didn’t deserve that.

Telling him she “had to go” had been laying the framework, but she had been hesitating on pulling the trigger because she couldn’t bear to leave him behind. Now, however, she knew what she had to do. 

“I need some air” Marshall slipped on his shoes and went downstairs to take a walk. Lily took advantage of the time to herself to begin packing. She didn’t take everything. She would never be able to fit it all, but she did take the things she needed. When she was done, she brought the bag out to the living room, and sat on the couch, waiting for Marshall. It’d be so easy to run, but she couldn’t. She had to make sure that he wouldn’t follow. The fight had to end, not be postponed. 

Marshall walked in a few minutes later, eyes immediately flicking to the bag and his face hardening. Lily stood before he could say anything, and spoke aloud the words she had been reciting to herself for the last hour.

“Marshall, I love you more than anything in the world, but I need to do this before I’m settled down and can’t do it again.” What was one more lie among the many she had already told, and would tell again. “I’m sorry. I want to tell you that I’ll be back. I want to tell you to wait for me, but that’s not fair, and you’re right, I shouldn’t make you wait around for three months, postpone our wedding, and expect you to welcome me back with open arms.” Lily placed something on the table as she walked towards Marshall, bag in hand. She reached up and pulled his face down into one final kiss, her face pressed against his, the taste of her tears in her mouth as she tried to savor what she had decided would be the last kiss she ever got from this man. “I love you Marshall, I’m so sorry,” and with that, she walked out the door, leaving Marshall alone with his thoughts and her ring.

The buildup of emotion and energy Lily felt wouldn’t stop, but rather kept growing. Her awareness of it didn’t help, but rather made it worse, as she began to add fear to the mix. The pain, hurt, sadness, anger and fear were mixing and bubbling up inside her, growing and twisting, and Lily felt like she couldn’t contain it anymore. With effort, she kept the emotion down, still walking calmly, ducking into an alleyway and putting her back against the wall. Breathing heavily and with her eyes closed, she didn’t notice the vampire sneaking up beside her. This vampire was quite proud of himself. While his brethren were still stuck in the dark, coming out only at night, he was always willing to buck tradition. Sure it was a risk to come out during daytime, but an overcast day, in a city with plenty of dark alleys and subway stations if the sun decided to show itself meant that he could be anywhere he wanted most days. It meant that he could hunt before sunset, and be out of the danger when night fell and the slayers stalked streets. 

And here was a perfect example of that. Humans naturally feared the dark, even if they didn’t know the truth about what was out there, they were less likely to walk down a dark alley than a well lit one (even if the well lit one was more secluded). And even though it was overcast, there were no shadows to jump at in this alley, and that made finding a meal even easier for him. Case in point, this beautiful redhead had just stepped into this alley of her own accord, no fears, no worries about what might be hiding around the corner. Confident in the daylight. Stupid.

Lily felt the pressure inside her reach a breaking point, and just as the vampire was about to release his fangs, she let out a scream. This wasn’t a shout, yell or even a shriek, but a true scream, full throated and hoarse, as the power behind the release shredded her vocal cords. As the noise echoed around the walls of the alley, the sky overhead suddenly darkened. The clouds became plump with moisture that hadn’t been there a moment ago, and the breeze of the early summer cooled. The vampire backed slowly away. He didn’t mind eating the crazy ones, but there was something more than insanity in that scream. A taste in the air, a buzzing of his skin. He turned and fled from the noise, leaving a crumpled and crying girl behind. 

Lily cried, and so did the sky. She made her way to the airport in the pouring rain, barely stopping to think about how wet she was getting. The dark clouds a reflection of her own sadness at the sacrifice she was making. She was simultaneously hoping that Marshall would chase her, and that he forget her and find someone better for him. Still, she had no second thoughts as she bought her ticket to San Fransisco, the location holding no fear for her anymore. The pain of losing Marshall overcoming even her trepidation of returning to California. 

She boarded the plane, and as she took off, flying away from the life she had built herself, the exhaustion of the day and the emotion took over her. She drifted off just as they crested the clouds and rose above one of the worst and most surprising storms NYC had seen in over a decade.


	5. Scoobies in NYC

“I thought you said vampires hated big cities like this?” Buffy was absentmindedly rubbing her nose, crossing her eyes to look down at whatever it was she thought was on the tip. 

“In point-of-fact, they do, that’s why we’re here.” Giles sighed as he explained to the slayer for the third time. “As I told you before we left, and again on the plane, there have been reports from the locally stationed watcher and slayer that vampire activity has increased drastically in the past month or two.”

“I know that, I just mean why if they hate this, are they suddenly coming here in droves?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out Buffy.” 

“I’m not stupid Giles, I know that too. Look, vampires don’t like cities because it’s too visible. There are too many witnesses, too many possible people to fight back. The cities they do stay in, there’s usually a reason. L.A. might be a city, but it doesn’t have any big concentrated population. It’s a bunch of neighborhoods connected by highways, not a city proper, so the vamps can stay in their own little towns and avoid the crowds. Cleveland has it’s own hellmouth, so that one makes sense too. As a matter of fact, L.A. is only a short trip from a former hellmouth too.” Buffy stopped walking her eyes locking on to Giles’, her rant winding down now that she was sure he understood the question she was asking, “Every other major city in the country we’ve investigated, including New York at the time, has had a minimal vampire population that we know can be handled by a single rookie slayer. Why, all of a sudden has the activity exploded, is there some kind of mumbo jumbo gumbo cooking here or what?”

“Well, according to some of our mystics, there has been a steadily increasing base of magical energy in the area.” Giles resumed their walk to the hotel they had reserved rooms in, “That and the increase in vampire activity wouldn’t normally be enough to bring us here, we might have just sent another slayer. A couple days ago, however, there was a huge surge in magical energy. The surge might be indicative of the arrival of some demon, or possibly a powerful artifact being used, we aren’t sure.”

“So the surge completed the trifecta?” Buffy opened the door to their room, walking inside and throwing herself on the couch.

“If you must phrase it that way, yes. Increasing magical energy is one thing, that could be either good or bad. An increase in vampire activity, while not a good thing, is something we can handle easily, but add to that a huge magical release, and we need to make sure that whatever is going on isn’t something that requires our full presence here.” Giles too sat down in a chair and pulled off his glasses, laying them on the coffee table and rubbing his eyes.

“I get it, that’s why it’s just the two of us, we’re on a kinda scouting mission.” Buffy rubbed her hands together as she sat up. “It’s almost like a ‘STAKEout’ wouldn’t you say?” Buffy burst into a loud fit of laughter that died quickly as Giles simply raised an eyebrow. 

“I would have thought” a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he spoke, “that leaving Xander behind would have excused me from having to hear such atrocious puns.”

“Hey!” Buffy pouted, “My puns are not atrocious, they are great. Years of practice have made me very good at… pun...things.” 

Giles raised his eyebrow even further, “Quite”

Buffy sat down in a huff, crossing her arms as she did so.

“We should get some rest, the flight from London was a long one, and Dawn set up a meeting with the local watcher and slayer here for early this evening.”

“Who is it again?” Buffy leaned forward, forgetting about her annoyance.

“The slayer is Amalia Zainab and her watcher is one of the young ones too, Dylan Powarski.”

“I’d like to go out on patrol with her tonight.”

“Buffy, you don’t have to patrol anymore you know, we need to figure out what’s going on here.”

“Please, just because I have some fancy title in the new Watchers Council doesn’t mean anything. I’m still just a slayer, and”

“I hardly think anyone believes you’re ‘just a slayer’ anymore Buffy, and to these young slayers, you’re almost a legend.”

“All the more reason for me to patrol instead of taking part in whatever research-a-thon you and that Dylan guy have planned.”

“I suppose you’re right. Let’s get some rest. If you’re patrolling tonight, you’ll definitely need it.”

Buffy stuck her tongue out at Giles, but walked into the bedroom anyway, and went to sleep.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“So where should we start ma’am” Amalia opened the door for Buffy as they walked out of the back of the hotel and into the quickly darkening night. 

“Ma’am? Are you for real?” Buffy looked at Amalia out of the side of her eye, incredulous. Maybe Giles hadn’t been exaggerating when he said she had become legendary.

“Sorry?” Amalia’s voice was crestfallen. Buffy shook her head.

“No I’m sorry.” Buffy turned to look the other slayer in the eye. “Look. I’m not a ma’am, I’m not in charge here. I don’t lead armies of slayers against the legions of darkness on a daily basis, I”

“But isn’t that what you did against the First Evil?” Amalia’s hand shot to her mouth, covering it as she realized that she had just interrupted The Buffy Summers.

“It was just that one time. Amalia,” Buffy reached up and put her hands on the tall girl’s shoulders. “I am just like you, I patrol, I kill vampires, I’ve just been doing it a little longer than you have. That doesn’t make me special, or legendary, or important. You are a slayer just as much as I am, and from the report of your watcher, you’re not typically this reverent, so stop thinking of me as anything more important than you.” Buffy smiled a small smile of self congratulation as Amalia nodded her agreement. “Good, now let me put the question back to you, where should we start. This is your patrol, your city, you know best.”

“Well, typically I start off wandering around the Lower East Side. There are a lot of drunks over there, even this early in the night, so that’s where the vamps tend to go for an easy meal. After that I kind of just wander around until I catch a feeling.” Amalia was wandering in the direction she had indicated, not so focused on the things she could see, but rather expanding her senses to take in everything around her.

“Ahh you’re one of those” Buffy said teasingly, “I never could get the hang of that whole ‘feeling the vampires’ thingy. Luckily, I had a lot of help figuring out where to look.”

Amalia faltered for a minute, surprised at the casual confession of this almost mythical figure that she wasn’t very good at using her slayer senses. 

The stories came back to her. She remembered being taught that before Buffy had activated them all, slayers used to work alone. She had flounced tradition, pulling in close friends and confidants into her activities. She had always been told that teamwork was important for a slayer, but with Buffy in front of her, she suddenly understood why. 

“Why did you do it?” Buffy turned her head slightly at the question, but otherwise showed no signs of slowing.

“Do what Amalia?”

“Why’d you give your power to everyone? I’ve read the textbooks, I know that the other slayers made a minimal difference in your battle. You could have stopped the First without them.”

“Don’t believe everything you read Amalia, trust me when I say that without them I would never have made it. Before me, Slayers rarely made it past the age of 18. Actually including me. You know that Faith was a slayer before the rest were activated don’t you? Well she was a slayer because I died at 16.”

“You died?!” Amalia had never heard this before. She knew that Faith was a slayer, and that before Buffy there had been only one, but there was never anyone who knew how that happened. She had always assumed that The Wiccan had done the activation spell but on a smaller scale and activated a second, and that’s how she knew how to activate all the others.

“When I was 16 I faced a very old vamp called “The Master” who killed me briefly. The slayer power called another girl named Kendra in the short time I was dead. She also died after being the slayer for only about a year, but that’s not the point of this story. Before me, the old watchers used to be pretty good at identifying the girl who would be called next, and they often began training her even before she became a slayer.”

Amalia led Buffy down an alley, cutting across 14th as they talked.

“Somehow, I fell through the cracks of that system, and they were quite surprised when I was called. I’m glad it went that way though, because by the time I was called I was used to making friends, used to a normal life in a way. I was shallow and stupid too, I’m glad that’s not me anymore, but it changed my perspective when I moved to Sunnydale. I made friends, and kept them, and let them know what my life was. That’s what kept me alive. When the Master killed me that’s what kept me alive. My friend Xander revived me.”

“Xander Harris? The Watcher General?”

“Yea. Anyway, my point is that those connections I had with the people around me, more than my skill, more than my luck, that’s what kept me around as long as I have been. You ask me why I gave my power to everyone, because the power is useless without someone there to support you. Remember that Amalia, you’re the only slayer stationed in New York because New York has never been much of a place for vampire stuff, but don’t let being the only slayer make you feel like you have to keep to yourself.”

Amalia stood still, considering the words of her hero. She had been shut off from pretty much everyone but her watcher since she had moved to New York a year ago. Maybe it was time to start…

Her thoughts were broken by a sudden twinge and chill on the back of her neck. She stopped suddenly, and could sense Buffy notice and tense up in a fraction of a second. Despite the approaching danger, she couldn’t help but admire Buffy’s ability to switch it off and on that way. Amalia was tense during her whole patrol, Buffy seemed relaxed until suddenly she wasn’t. 

Amalia saw a couple walking down the street laughing, the guys arm around his date’s lower back. She turned to tell Buffy that she felt the vampire only to notice that Buffy was no longer beside her.

“Ummm, excuse me?” Buffy had her arms behind her back and her long blonde hair twisted off to one side. “Could you, like, tell me where I can find Broadway, I think I’m lost.”

“Yea sure, it’s this way” the guy pointed in a direction while sliding his other hand further down his date’s back, leaving it resting lightly on the upper half of her backside. “Now if you’ll excuse me”

“Umm, could you show me how to get there?”

“Listen little girl, I don’t have time for you, find a policeman to take you back to daddy, I’m out of here.”

“Ugh, you’re kind of a jerk you know that,” Buffy turned towards Amalia with an exasperated look on her face. “You try to do something nice you know, you try to save them from a horrible death and this is the thanks you get.”

“What are you talking about you crazy bitch?” The guy let go of his date, and turned to try and tower over Buffy, “I’m done with this…”

“Me too,” Buffy interrupted pulling a stake out from inside her jacket, “Now run along”

Fear shot across the guys face and he grabbed his date’s arm moving to pull her away, but she stayed where she was standing, staring Buffy in the face. He turned back to her only to find ridges and fangs where before there had been smooth lines and even teeth. He turned and ran without a second thought.

“You people in this city, you just can’t leave well enough alone can you? I freaking hate New York.”

“Well then why are you here?” The vampire and Buffy slowly circled each other, eyes open for any weakness.

“Pickings are easy when you learn how to do it right. And they’re getting easier. People in this town used to be impossible. Too picky, to awake, to cynical and suspicious, but things are getting easier. There’s a taste of ignorance that I just love. still, too bad they never told you a vampire can kill you even if you are suspicious, I can’t wait to drink you.”

The vampire attacked and Amalia stood in shock at how straightforwardly Buffy was taking this. The academy had taught them surprise. Vampires wouldn’t know she was coming, they wouldn’t know she was anything more than a helpless girl and that was her advantage. Stake them before they knew what you were, Dylan had drilled that into her time and time again, and here Buffy was, giving the vampire first shot for free.

The vampire was almost on top of Buffy before she even moved, but as it shoved it’s fangs towards her, she quickly ducked straight down, letting the vamps head jut out over her, and then Buffy shot straight up, headbutting the vamp in a sort of uppercut fashion. It’s head snapped back, and blindingly fast, before it could recover, Buffy’s arm shot forward, staking it neatly. 

She turned back towards Amalia as the vampire burst into dust behind her, walking casually as if nothing had happened.

“The thing that really bothers me is that that guy will wake up tomorrow thinking that he was drunk and I’m just some jealous girl who ruined a sure thing for him. Man people are so ungrateful huh?”

Amalia just stared open mouthed at how easily Buffy had dispatched the vampire and then acted like it was the easiest thing in the world. Buffy may pretend like she’s no better than the rest of them, Amalia decided, but she’s in a league all her own.


	6. San Francisco Surprise

“I just can’t catch a break can I?” Lily flopped down on her bed in the dingy San Francisco apartment she was renting. It had been a little over a month since she had run out on her second chance, and she was over the daily and crippling pangs of regret, now dealing with a more manageable dull ache of loneliness. 

She was unhappy with today especially because she had been basically told to drop out of the art fellowship. Her trip here may have been initiated by something very separate from her love of art, but painting was still something that she wanted to excel at. Painting had been the first thing she had discovered a talent and passion for after beginning her new life, and even though she had given up all the other trappings of her fresh start, painting was all that was left.

But now, she had been too upset to work hard at painting, and she had seen too much darkness in her life to tap into that while working. she was afraid that if she tried to pull from that emotion, she’d fall into a hole she’d never make it out of. So instead she painted half-assed pictures of flowers that had no soul in them, and her instructor noticed. 

What would she do in San Francisco now? She had abandoned one identity already, one that was becoming harder to forget now that she was back in California, she wasn’t completely willing to abandon another. Still what could she do here? she could go back to teaching she supposed, but the ideas of putting down roots in a place like this, sticking around somewhere she hadn’t wanted to go in the first place didn’t appeal to her. She couldn’t go to her parents, their relationship had improved somewhat, but certainly not to the point where she was ready to be with them all the time again, and her grandparents were out, she’d already been through that with them once, besides, they’d all already have heard that she had run out on Marshall, and she didn’t want to explain anything. 

She had a little money, enough for the rest of the summer, and she had this place for now. Lily groaned as she sat up. This decision could wait until tomorrow, she was hungry and depressed and thought that it was high time to go get some coffee and something to eat. 

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Lily was taking a moment to appreciate the ice cream cone she had purchased when she heard a voice up ahead her yelling out. Living in New York for years, and in San Francisco more recently had mostly stolen from her the feeling from her youth that loud noises and shouts were something she always had to pay attention to. She continued looking at her ice cream, lost in thought, heading towards the shouts. 

They grew louder until she was suddenly and roughly shoved aside, a disembodied voice saying, “Get out of the way stupid”. Lily picked herself up off the ground in a rage. Her day had sucked enough, she was not about to let herself get pushed around any more. Swinging her eyes around looking for the voice, she instead found something she was very much not expecting.

Bony shoulders jutted upwards from its bare chest, and two long horn curved back and down around the side of the thing’s head. It started towards Lily, and unbidden a name sprang to her lips.

“Fyarl Demon” Lily spoke softly, but started suddenly when some movement off to her right caught the corner of her eye.

“If you know what it’s called why the hell haven’t you run away yet?” a voice rang out, and unable to help herself, Lily took her eyes off the demon to look at the source of the voice.

“Oh” the speaker left a slight pause, as if trying to gather her bearings, then she continued. “Shit.” 

The shock to Lily’s system was so great that she was unable to gather her wits enough to run away while the speaker charged past her with a knife flashing in her hands. The knife became a silver streak as it jabbed forwards, slicing through flesh and reaching the demon’s heart. Letting the creature fall, the young dark haired woman turned back to Lily and after staring for a moment, started to walk slowly over to her.

Lily’s mind was working in overdrive, but somehow still wasn’t managing to reach any kind of conclusion. Her first thought was to run away, but then she thought that would be too suspicious, she thought about claiming to be someone else, she had seen enough doppelgangers to know that they existed, but she had already given too much away by knowing the name of the demon. Her mind went back to run, but when she put her arms down to push herself up, a sudden pain made itself apparent to her for the first time. Lily cried out, the wrist she had broken when falling crumpling under her, and the girl who had killed the demon spring forward quickly. 

“We should get you to the watchers” the girl said matter of factly as she helped Lily off the ground.

“No please” was all Lily was able to get out as she clutched her wrist in her good hand.

“What the hell do you mean no?” the girl stared at Lily incredulously, “Do you know what we thought? What you put everyone through?” 

“Faith, please” Lily begged, beginning to lean away from the slayer, getting ready to run away if she had to.

Faith took a deep breath, and closed her eyes momentarily, when she opened them again, the anger was gone. “Fine, but we should get you to the hospital to set your wrist; unless you have some mojo to..”

“No!” Lily said forcefully, then looked down shyly, “I mean yes to the hospital, but no, I’m done with that other stuff.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“You didn’t have to come with me you know.” Lily was nervous about Faith being there. The two hadn’t gotten along great in the first place, and now? Who knew how Faith felt, and what would happen now that she had seen her.

“Ahh but I did, I didn’t trust you to not run away after letting you out of my sight, and if I’m the one who isn’t trusting you, that’s a pretty clear sign that there’s a serious conversation in our future.”

“You can’t tell them Faith”

“I’m pretty sure I can do whatever I want,” Faith smiled slightly, “But I’ve mellowed a bit in my old age, so I’m willing to let you convince me that I shouldn’t.”

“Listen, I left for a reason, and I don’t plan to go back, telling them that you’ve seen me will only make them remember that I’m around and to come looking for me.”

“Remember that you’re around? Red, we all thought you were dead. The Hellmouth collapsed and you weren’t anywhere to be found, and if you didn’t leave with us that meant you didn’t leave.”

Lily was surprised, another dagger of guilt stabbing through her, but she had gone too far, been gone too long, and had too much behind her to be able to go back to where she used to be.

“Then that’s even more of a reason not to tell them. If they think I’m dead, and I don’t plan on going back to that life, then what’s the point of hurting them more. What are you going to do, tell them ‘Oh I found Willow…” Her voice cracked momentarily. It had been so long since she had said that name, since she had even thought that name. Even now, she was repressing her past. Faith was in front of her, but she was being careful not to refer to anyone in her old life by name. Right now, she couldn’t afford to allow her emotions to overcome her, she needed to be convincing, not crying or catatonic. Lily took a breath and started again, “You can’t just tell them that you found me, that I’m alive, but that I never want to see them again, that I have a new life, and that I have gotten myself as far away from the supernatural as possible.”

“Didn’t look that far away to me today, San Fran ain’t exactly the dead zone of spooky either, There’s plenty here that goes bump in the night.”

“Not here, New York.”

“Well I guess if you gotta lose yourself from the forces of darkness, NYC ain’t bad, but what are you doing here then?”

The question caught Lily off guard. Faith wasn’t exactly the person she wanted to be having this conversation with, but after the emotional turbulence of the past few hours, and putting all of her focus on convincing Faith not to rat her out, she was unable to contain the words that slipped out. “I ran away”

“Well, seems to be a new trend for you huh Red?” Faith smiled slightly, enjoying for a moment that she wasn’t the one who was screwed up in this conversation. 

“I just, I was getting married and it was getting to be too much and Marshall was almost attacked by a vampire and I was lying to everyone so much and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t deserve the second chance, and he deserved someone better.”

“Woah, woah,” Faith’s smile dropped off her face at the unexpected outpouring of honesty and emotion, “Listen Willow..”

“It’s Lily now”

“Whatever, listen, I don’t pretend to know your life, or what your reasons for leaving us were, but you clearly had them, and I’m not really the person to judge your choices you know? I will say this though, I’ve been through some shit, and I’ve done some awful things but you know what? I live my life today as if I deserve every second of it. So you’re lying to your new honey and friends, who cares? It’s not like they’d even understand if you told them the truth, and not knowing isn’t hurting them is it? They haven’t been in stuff like we do right?”

“Well no, they’re just regular people.”

“Right, so screw it, lie away and don’t regret it. I won’t begrudge anyone a second chance, not now, and I won’t tell anyone about today, about you, but you Red, you gotta do something for me.”

“What’s that?” Gratitude exploded through Lily’s insides, and a tension that she hadn’t noticed suddenly relaxed.

“Go back, stupid. You might be lying about things that you’ve done, but you haven’t lied about who you are. No one can, it always comes through. Every action, decision, and everything about you will tell the truth even if your mouth lies, and if you’ve been “Lily” long enough to get married, then it seems to me that Lily is who you are now. Not “Willow with a fake name” but actually Lily. Besides, you stick around here, you’re liable to run into some more trouble and eventually it won’t be me that sees you, and I doubt anyone else would keep your secret.”

“Thank you.” Lily smiled at Faith. She’d never been close to the other slayer, but she had to admit, she was almost glad she ran into Faith.

“Yea, whatever.” Faith stood up and walked out of the hospital room, never turning around to look back.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Lily was a ball of nerves on the plane ride back. She had put off returning to New York out of a lot of fear, but she had been blaming everything else. She had to wait for her wrist to heal, she had to officially drop out of the program, she had to finish out the lease on the apartment. She had been in the process of discovering another excuse when two things had happened. On a walk one night, she saw Faith stalking a vampire down the street, and Barney had shown up.

Of the two, Barney had been the key in her return. His reassurance that Marshall still loved her combined with his veiled threat that Marshall was going to move on soon had jolted her in a way that combined with her second Faith sighting forced her to confront the fact that she was hesitating out of fear. She bought a ticket that night and was on a plane a week later.

Stepping out of the cab in front of MacLaren’s had been hard. Lily walked down the steps and looked in the window to see her friends laughing in their booth, and felt a pang of complex emotion. She couldn’t see the rest of them, it had been too much, and especially not Marshall, she couldn’t walk in there now. She walked back upstairs and took a cab to Brooklyn, and waited there for Robin to come home.


	7. Seeking Answers

Dylan stumbled backwards, hit hard by the unexpected introduction of a hard soled boot to his face, with all the force behind it that the vampire could muster. The vampire reached out towards him, fangs bared, and Dylan sucked in a breath, steadying himself and getting ready to fight back, when the vampire dissolved into dust, unfortunately just in time for Dylan to suck some of that dust up into his lungs.

“Gah, sorry.” Amalia reached down to pull up a coughing Dylan, “Stupid vamps never fall the way I want them to. How did she do it?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Dylan sputtered and brushed his clothing off, shaking out the last traces of the undead from his hoodie. 

“Buffy.”

“What about Buffy?”

“In the two weeks that she was here I saw her dust at least a dozen vamps, and every time they went exactly where she wanted them to. She’d get one bending over someone that had fallen and somehow it’d stand up and turn around, falling off behind a garbage can, or out of the alley so all the person who was attacked thought was that their attacker was scared off.”

“Amalia...”

“Literally, she threw one once and it landed in a dumpster onto a broken broom handle. The dust was already in the trash. How did she know?”

“Amalia!” the loud response startled the slayer out of her rant, “Yes I agree, Buffy was very good, but so are you, don’t worry about the dust.”

“It’s just that she’s…”

“So good, yes you’ve said. Every night. All summer since she left. Yes she’s very good, yes you can tell that she’s been doing it for so long, yes I’ve noticed that you’ve gotten better since spending nights with her, and yes, Amalia she is the best slayer there is. Did I miss any?”

“No,” Amalia stuck her tongue out at Dylan and turned to walk away, letting him chase after her. “It’s just she was so concerned about how many vamps we found while she was here, it makes me nervous too.”

“Me as well, Mr. Giles said that when he last checked there hadn’t even been enough vamps to make a nest, despite the extensive sewer and subway system. Demons and vampires typically avoid New York because it’s too watched. Too much on everyone’s radar, especially since 2001.”

“Well, I think it’s time we start doing something about it.”

“Like what?” 

“Well, since Buffy left I’ve been trying to figure out how to find out why there are so many vamps now, I usually don’t have much of a chance to talk to them while I’m fighting, but when I do manage to get them talking before, or the two I’ve gotten at stake point since them I’ve been asking them everything I can.”

“What have you been asking? You should have discussed this with me, we could have really come up with a stratagem that would have…”

“It wasn’t so much a plan at first, that’s why I’m bringing it up now. I’ve only been able to question two and both of them were mostly out of luck. So feel free to strategem yourself into oblivion.”

“Well we need to decide, what are the essential questions we’re after, and how do we find out those answers.”

“Wow.” Amalia blinked with mock fascination at Dylan.

“Ridicule all you want, but when Mr. Giles was here we brought up dozens of theories and things we wish we could answer. If we don’t narrow that stuff down, how are we going to know what the root of the problem is.” Dylan opened to door to the apartment the council was renting for him and his slayer to share.

Amalia immediately made a beeline for the kitchen while Dylan got some supplies to work through this plan. A large yellow legal pad, some papers and some small figurines. Amalia returned from the kitchen with a bottle of hard cider and a tupperware full of now steaming leftovers. Smirking at Dylan’s setup, she swiped some of the figurines off the table and put down her snack, and after taking a pull of the bottle, she finally spoke.

“Alright I’ll humour you. We want to know why so many vampires are moving to town right?”

“Actually no, we have a pretty good idea about that.” Dylan was resignedly picking up his figurines, and then stole a bite of Amalia’s food before continuing, “According to all the data we have, vampires aren’t particularly magical in and of themselves, but high concentrations of magical energies do sort of pull them to it. Not to say that they can’t resist, but there seems to be something of an appeal to a place filled with magical energies. It’s why vampires are such big presences near hellmouths.”

“Ok, so what you’re saying is that the vampires are increasing in numbers because there’s a bunch of magic in the city.” 

“That’s the thing. Unsurprisingly, New York has always had a somewhat decent magical output. A city this large obviously is going to contain some strangeness, but the vampires instincts usually counter that magical force because New York is also very densely populated and always very much in the public eye. Despite the rather large daily body count that New York racks up, a relatively small amount of that body count is supernatural in origin. Even among big cities, New York has always had one of the lowest instances of supernatural activity, despite it’s magical output.”

“Look, I appreciate the history lesson, but it still doesn’t make much sense to me.”

“The point is, the city has recently had a slow but steady increase in magical power emanating from it, and recently it’s been enough to give the vamps a sort of benefits outweigh the risks mindset.”

“Why though, why would more magic mean more vamps?”

“Didn’t you learn that at slayer training.”

“Uh, no Dylan. Slayer training was a lot more like “Stab that guy. Now that one.” than it was about the history of vampire behavior.”

“Ah, well. Ok. They like magic because more magic means that less people are aware of them. Until the moment when someone has irrefutable proof of magic, it’s existence tends to naturally shield itself from humans. It’s why hellmouths also tend to be major population centers. People begin to have a harder time recognizing the supernatural, and an easier time explaining away the fantastic because of the influence of so much magic.”

“Oh I get it. So the more magic, the easier for vampires to stay unnoticed. That makes sense actually. The first vamp I saw Buffy stake said something about tasting more ignorance than there used to be.”

“Right. So our real question becomes, why is the magic increasing.”

“Buffy said something about a big blast of magic being the reason they came.”

“Yes so did Mr. Giles. I think what we need to do is start looking for powerful magics. talk to people who are in that world and see what we can learn about why magic is getting stronger here, and what could have caused that burst. Once we figure it out, we can call Mr. Giles and Buffy back to the city and take care of whatever is causing this.”

“I’m ready.” Amalia smiled almost ferally. She knew they always assigned the newest, the most untested, and worst slayers to cities like New York. But this was her chance to prove something. She would find whatever it was that caused all this energy, whatever was bringing all these vampires, and she would end it.


	8. Moving Forward

Lily stared at the phone, trying to gather the courage to pick it up. 

_Lily stood outside the door of the bar, smiling as Marshall walked away. When he finally disappeared behind the door of the apartment building, she let the facade drop and cried. Not a loud and obvious weeping, but a small and subtle sadness that left unseen tears on her cheeks as she walked back to her new apartment. She didn’t know what else she should have expected, but when Ted told her that Marshall would take her back for sure, she knew she had to find him before it was too late, before she lost her nerve._

_And then he had said no. She had asked him to get back together and he said no. Lily had dealt with heartbreak before. God knows she had dealt with some horrific losses, but this one was different. Marshall was gone, but he wasn’t. He was still there, still in the place he’d always been. That was something she didn’t know how to handle. Breakups that left you without any contact were awful, but now, Lily thought, this kind was worse._

_She didn’t know what else to do though, but fight to fix this. Making Barney look silly tonight may have made Marshall smile momentarily, but she wanted to make him feel the way they used to feel. Lily went to bed in her dingy apartment, silent tears falling, imagining possibilities and scenarios that might bring him back faster._

Lily took a deep breath, and half heartedly raised her hand, only to let it fall back down to the arm of the chair. She closed her eyes and put her head back on the pillows.

_Oh God! Lily thought. She thought she’d been making progress. That she’d be able to handle this. She thought her patience would carry through and that soon, Marshall would have forgiven her. They’d had sex a few times since she’d been back, so she knew he still wanted her, but that emotional connection was so faint. It had been like they had been going through the motions, but their enjoyment was only half hearted while they were figuring each other out again._

_Most of that was her fault obviously. Not only had Lily broken his heart, but she had changed, somewhat, because of her trip. She had always held something back before, always kept part of herself away, afraid of what would happen if she didn’t. But after validation from Faith, and after facing that fear of losing Marshall, she was ready to go all in. She’d keep her secrets still yes, but not her emotions anymore. But now that she was ready give herself, all of herself, to Marshall finally, she needed to wait for him to be ready._

_And now, now Marshall had a date._

_Lily knew that she was being crazy. She knew that following this poor girl would accomplish nothing. Still she couldn’t stop herself._

_Then that night in the apartment, seeing Marshall there with her, seeing them on the couch, and then noticing the picture of the two of them had been moved, it was too much. Lily was sitting behind the couch, burning with jealousy and sadness, when the picture broke. Lily stifled a small gasp. She knew that she had done it. She didn’t know how. She hadn’t consciously used magic since before she was Lily, and even since then, only twice in extreme circumstances. Once when Marshall’s life was in danger, and once when she had thought she was going to be confronted by Wesley in front of everyone._

_The thought was put out of her mind however, when Marshall started to blame his date for breaking the picture. She couldn’t let someone else take the fall for that. She stood up and took the blame, ran out, and knew that she had lost._

Lily smiled to think of that night. She finally had Marshall back, and the next day was even better, as they decided to avoid the difficulties of re-planning a wedding that she had already called off and instead elope in Atlantic City. That decision was the reason she was trying work up the nerve to pick up the phone now. 

“Screw it” Lily spoke aloud to no one, and reached over and picked up the phone. She dialed the number that was written down and waited for the phone to begin ringing.

_“...to declare your love and devotion to each other in front of friends and family, all the people who matter most to you. What was that?”_

_The ship captain had seen the look that passed between them. It may not have been real telepathy, but Lily was able to read Marshalls expressions clearly enough, and he was right. Ted, Robin and Barney were incredibly important to them, but there were other people that were too. Marshall especially deserved to have his family there when he got married. They called off the wedding here too, and Lily knew that it was the right choice by the way Marshall smiled at her after they did._

_It would be hard. There would be work, but after San Francisco, after accepting that if she was going to be happy she had to be the new person she had been holding herself back from, she knew that it was the only way to move forward._

She hear the phone ring and her heart jumped into her throat. She had been reminded that there were going to be many people there that were important to her, but that there would be just as many people that were incredibly important to her that wouldn’t be there. 

“Hello” the voice on the other end of the phone said.

Lily sucked in a breath. It had been so long since she had hear his voice. So long since she had even let herself think about him without stamping it down and hiding it away.

“Hello?” the voice repeated. 

They say the first thing that you forget about someone is their voice, that their face and their movements and their scent last far longer than the particular pitch and tone when they speak. Lily understood that now. The realness, the depth of quality in that voice was far past what she had left in her memory, and it took her by surprise. 

She slammed the receiver back down, hanging up abruptly. His voice had shaken her, and she made a decision in that moment. She may want to see Xander again, to speak with him again, but she was never going to. He’d be happier not knowing how she had deceived him, happier being able to move forward. He’d never have to deal with her refusing to come back into the fold, never have to be let down by her again. And as much as it might kill her, If she had spoken to Xander instead of hanging up on him, she’d have hurt him far more than it was worth. 

She tore up the paper that Faith had given her so she could call the Scoobies if she needed to. That chapter in her life was shut. Not the way she had done it before, ignoring it, but truly shut. She’d allow herself to think back maybe now, but never to go back.


	9. Protection

“Let me do most of the talking” Dylan straightened his tie for what had to be the tenth time on the walk from the subway stop to the local magic shop. Amalia had gathered from talking to people over the past week that this particular shop was considered somewhat legitimate by people in the know. 

It was located in the Upper West Side, near Central Park on 80th. Many magic shops lined the streets near Central Park, as it was the best place to find space that magic users needed to commune with nature for a variety of spells. 

“Yes, you’ve said. Repeatedly. I’ll let you talk to the shop owner and I’ll just browse the merchandise any eavesdrop on any conversations in the store. You will be speaking with the owner about finding any local wiccans because you’re looking to join a group, but really we’re trying to find leads. Did I miss anything?” Amalia spun around and walked backwards a few steps while giving her watcher a look.

“Ah, yes, that about covers it. Sorry, I just want it to go right.” Dylan looked down a bit nervously. He too knew that New York was considered a soft assignment, and that as such a young watcher his words could be doubted. 

“Eh, don’t be nervous Dyl, even if we strike out here, we’ll figure it out eventually. Worse comes to worst, I’ll just start tailing demons.” Amalia put her arm around the shorter man and gave him a reassuring squeeze.   
They pushed open the door to the, “The Magic Apple” and walked in. As Dylan walked to discuss with the owner whatever it was he was planning to discuss, Amalia began her wandering. Eavesdropping was fairly boring as most people were in the store alone, so she began to look at people’s behavior. 

Most customers were acting like typical customers. Some overexcited kids in black who were taking photos of each other with some of the more outrageous pieces of merchandise were clearly tourists stopping in a shop they didn’t take seriously. Others walked in, list at the ready. buying specific items. These people varied between buying legitimate supplies and buying worthless new age crystals. No one looked suspicious, or acted strange in any way. Rather than view the room as a whole, she begin to instead focus only on the people who seemed like they knew what they were doing.

The door opened, and Amalia turned to see if this new customer would prove interesting. She saw a thin short woman walk in. She had a mix between brown and red hair, almost auburn, and when her eyes met Amalia’s she hesitated. Amalia’s eyebrow involuntarily went up just as the woman turned her head away and started to pointedly look at every shelf but the ones Amalia was standing next to. Turning her own eyes away, Amalia tried to track the woman with her peripheral vision. She seemed to know what she was looking at, and the woman was obviously choosing real ingredients, rather than the tourist trap merchandise. 

Why did the woman hesitate? Amalia was sure that no one knew she was the slayer. She was too young and had only killed a few vampires, not really enough of anything to get anyone’s attention, so why did the woman see Amalia and get nervous? She decided to take a page out of Buffy’s book and go speak with the woman.

“Hi, I’m Amalia” She walked up next to the woman and turned to face her, noticing as she did that the red of her cheeks was starting to make her hair seem even redder. This woman was acting very suspicious, but Amalia wasn’t able to really feel anything threatening or sinister coming from her, and the tall slayer was used to trusting those feelings.

“Uh… Hi..” The woman turned to look at her briefly, and then looked down at her hands quickly.

“I’m new to this whole magic thing, and you look like you might know what you’re doing, any tips?” Amalia tried to remain cheerful and seem oblivious about the lack of a name the other woman gave her.

“Well, uh, I’ve never been here before, but um, this place looks ok. I’m sure the shopkeeper can help a lot more than I can.” The woman began to move away from the slayer, turning around the corner to the next set of shelves. 

“Oh yea, I’m just waiting for my friend to finish talking to him, but I figured I could get some help from someone who’s done this kind of thing before. What kind of spell you going to do?” Amalia followed the woman to the next set, but was starting to wonder if maybe Dylan was right and this whole talking to people part of the detective work they’ve been doing was better in his hands. It was easy to talk information out of vampires, because she knew that she had the power and skills to make them talk, but here, she didn’t know what to do, or why this girl was so nervous.

“Oh, just, um, a small protection spell. I’m not actually that experienced, I’m just getting married soon and I want to make sure it goes ok.” The woman turned and looked Amalia in the eyes for the first time. Her cheeks were a bright red that was creeping to her neck and ears as well, but she held Amalia’s gaze. 

“Oh, ok. Sorry to bother you, good luck with your spell.” Amalia had noticed Dylan waving her over, and decided that this woman’s nerves were more about social awkwardness than they were about anything important, and from the little she knew from her slayer training, the woman certainly had been buying ingredients for a basic protection spell.

“You get anything?” Dylan looked smugly at Amalia, trying to hide his grin with his patronizing question.

“Oh shut your face up and tell me what you found out already” The slayer looked at her watcher pointedly. 

“Sorry, ok, so not only did the owner know of a group, they were actually meeting in a back room at the time, so he took me in and introduced me. I basically told them that I’ve always had these weird feelings, but when I moved to the city they went away most of the time, but that recently they’ve been starting to come back, and I’ve only just figured out that they were related to magic.”

“So you’re a jedi now?” Amalia grinned

“Oh shut up. Anyway, I gave them dates relating to that giant magic surge and said that the feelings have been coming back more and more since then. They told me that that big surge is a mystery to them, they all felt it but no one has any idea what it came from, but that the magic since then has had a similar, but slightly different feel. Like the surge was one thing, and that something is using that energy to increase the natural magic of the city. Do you know what that means?”

“Not really, but I’m so proud of you for doing such a good job detectiving.” Amalia gave Dylan’s shoulder a squeeze as they walked down the street towards the subway. 

“Oh thanks so much” Dylan’s sarcasm hung in the air and he noticed Amalia’s face fall instantly.

“I was being sincere. You’re my partner here, I’m always rooting for you to do well.”

“Oh, uh, Amalia, I’m…”

“I’m just kidding around Dyl, I’m not offended, but I am still proud. So what does that mean?”

“Oh, well, it could mean a number of things, but it’s entirely possible that the burst was accidental in some way and that someone or something else is taking advantage of the energy released to do or change something about the way NYC produces magic. The burst could be separate from the increase. Maybe we haven’t been able to get a lead because we’re searching for two entirely different things.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Lily burst into her bedroom a bundle of nerves and needed to calm herself down before she could even think clearly. What were the chances that she went to a magic shop for the first time in years, and the first person she sees is the local slayer. More than that, the girl decided to talk to her. How did the slayer know that she was experienced with magic. 

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, allowing herself to feel the air leaving her lungs. It didn’t matter, there was no way she could know who Lily was, and now Lily just would make sure that she went to a different magic shop in the future. It was kind of a bad idea to go to a shop so close to her own apartment anyway, since she didn’t want anyone she knew to see her there. But since she’d been back in New York, she’d noticed things a lot more often, and she wasn’t sure if it was because she wasn’t running from her past as much these days, or if it was because there was something happening, but she knew it was time to take action now. After what happened at her play the other night, the vampire that followed them all the way to the bar, they were lucky none of them separated. The presence of the vamp though and especially the fact that no one seemed to notice they had been followed meant that she had to take some kind of action.

She had purchased the ingredients for a simple protection spell, and she was planning on casting it on all of her friends. She was relying on shaky memories to put together the spell, but things she had seen online had helped fill in the gaps. She had a few hours until Marshall or Ted returned to the apartment, and she had four spells to perform at once, so she stopped second guessing and began to get down to business.

As she chanted and burned candles and incense, she felt something stir within her that she hadn’t experienced in a long time. It had been years since she consciously used magic, especially at this level of power. That lack of recent experience was a mistake. She had put together this protection based on distant memory, and had forgotten how precisely she’d need to channel the energies to make this go easily. Instead she just forced as much magic into the spell as she could muster, not realizing or not remembering how much magic she was able to actually wield.

The lights cut out. Looking out the window, Lily realized the light had cut out in all the buildings she could see. As a matter of fact, there was one light in the visible area, coming from the spell building in front of her. With sudden intensity, the light flared up and seemingly burst, and Lily knew by the exhaustion that overwhelmed her that it was done. 

As she lay on the bed, fading into unconsciousness, she smiled to herself, feeling safer already.  
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

The man turned to look behind him and see if he had lost the pair that had been following him for the past 20 minutes. After noticing the pair, he had ducked around a corner and started running, only to see that as he got to the end of the alley, they were running after him, and running abnormally fast it seemed like. He could just barely make out one figure, and smiled to himself. They may have been fast, but it seemed his spell had worked and he was outsripping them. He turned around to see the glint of light of a bald head, and the bottom of a very long leg stop him dead with a kick to his chest.

The black young woman who had kicked him grabbed the front of his shirt and held him up. 

“Oh..” her companion arrived, sucking in breath after breath, but she looked like she had barely been working. “Good you got him.”

“Take a breather Dyl, I’ll figure this out.” Turning back towards the man, the impossibly strong girl shook him slightly. “What the hell is going on here?”

With a groan, Dylan stood, “Amalia, I’m not sure that broad a question is going to get you much information.”

Rolling her eyes, the tall slayer took a breath and tried again. “Allow me to rephrase. Tell me everything you know about why magic is increasing in the city, and about the enormous burst of energy last summer.

“I can’t, he’ll know. He’ll kill me”

“Who?”

The man refused to say anything more, eyes widening in fear.

“I’m going to put you down,” Amalia lowered the man to the ground, but pulled him close to her face, “If you run, I will catch you again, and you won’t get off as easily as last time. I get that you’re afraid of something, but if you help me out here, I can make sure that nothing kills you.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Look, we know you’ve been doing something to the natural magic of NYC, and we know that you’re not the one behind it, but we need to know who is behind it, what they’re doing and how to stop it. If the guy you’re working for is someone who will kill you, it seems to me that you don’t want to be working for him anyway.”

“It’s not that easy, you can’t stop it, you can’t stop him. He’ll kill me whether or not I talk to you. I’ve been caught, you’ve signed my death.”

“I can protect you. Don’t worry.” Dylan noticed that Amalia was speaking more quickly now. She had killed plenty of vampires, and saved plenty of lives, but she took it hard when someone was killed by a vamp, as if it was her fault they died. He knew it wasn’t, but that never helped. The idea of directly causing someone’s death was clearly worrying her.

“You can’t. I’m dead either way.”

“If you truly believe that, then tell us what you know.” Dylan had caught his breath and stepped forward now, ignoring the look Amalia shot him. She’d want to reassure the man first, but Dylan needed the information.

“You killed me, why should I tell you anything.” The man looked around as he said this, as if he was hoping someone might save him from them.

“We didn’t kill you. As a matter of fact, we’re going to do everything we have to to protect you, but you need to tell us what we need to know first.” Dylan held up a hand to stop Amalia before she started, they needed this information. “We didn’t and won’t kill you, he might, but if we can stop him, he may not have time to worry about you.”

“I’m dead, there’s nothing anyone can do about it, but you’re right, he killed me, not you.” The man slumped to the ground and breathed out heavily. “I don’t know anything about that surge in magic last summer, but it was certainly incredibly helpful to what we had been doing. My master…”

“Who is he?” Amalia asked, kindly

“I don’t know, I never saw him, or heard his name. He always was heavily cloaked, and had demonstrated his power well enough that we didn’t ask any questions. He tricked us. He used our erroneous beliefs and conviction to change everything.”

“How so”

“Hellmouths exist across the world. They’re inherently magical constructs that connect this world to others. We thought that they were where magic came from. We had good reason to think this. There was one in California that was destroyed around 8 years ago and since then, magic has been a bit unstable. My master came to us and told us these things, and somehow made us believe him. He told us the world was becoming unstable and that the only way to save it was to create another one.”

“Good God.” Dylan took a step back. “Create a Hellmouth? Why would you ever do that?”

“We thought we were saving the world. None of us really knew what a Hellmouth was, we knew only what he told us. It was only after we had started that we realized what we had done. It was slow going at first. Hellmouths need a large amount of magic to form, and we were the source of that magic, but none of us were able to jumpstart the process. We laid the groundwork and began to form the construct, but it was going to take years. Then magic surged and somehow my master was able to harness the last half of that before it escaped. That surge, wherever it came from, saved him at least 2 years of preparation.”

“Wherever it came from? You don’t know?” Dylan asked.

“No, and my master didn’t either. He only was able to harness the latter half of the surge. He said that if he had been able to get the whole thing he’d have been 80 percent done in one day. As it stands he’s nearly halfway through the process.”

The lights went black. The partial moon shining the only light in the alley. Amalia looked up and for the first time in NYC in months, she saw stars dotting the night sky. It was a blackout.

“No.” The man said.

“What is it?” Dylan asked frantically

“Another burst of magic. It’s much smaller than last years, but if he created this, or harnessed it, even if he got part of this, it’s enough to get him another quarter of the way to his goal. The Hellmouth is almost completed. God help us all.” The man shuddered in fear, Dylan thought at first. 

Then the shuddering wouldn’t stop. The man shook and foamed at the mouth. Blood poured from his nose, then his ears, then his eyes. 

“What the hell is happening?” Amalia shouted, stepping towards the man.

“His master must have a way of killing from a distance.” Dylan wrapped Amalia in his arms and pulled her back away from the dying man. “We need to leave now before whoever his master is has the chance to do something to us. Come on.”

Amalia looked back at the man one last time, and with her eyes downcast, followed Dylan out of the alley.


End file.
